Rick Jason (born Richard Jacobson; May 21, 1923 – October 16, 2000) was an American actor, born in New York City, and most remembered for starring in the ABC television dramaCombat! (1962–1967).
Rick Jason served from 1943 to 1945 in the U.S. Army Air Corps during World War II.[2] In the late 1960s and early 1970s, he visited American troops serving in Vietnam on several USO tours.[3]
In 1960, he starred as insurance investigator Robin Scott in The Case of the Dangerous Robin, a syndicated American television series that lasted only one season. It was not renewed due to Jason's health issues, including back problems. In 1962, he began starring in the television series Combat! as Platoon Leader 2nd Lt. Gil Hanley, probably his most memorable role. In this series he shared the starring role in an alternating episode rotation, with Vic Morrow as Sgt. Chip Saunders, though in many episodes they both appeared. The show was a hit that lasted for 152 episodes in five seasons.
After retiring from screen appearances, Jason kept busy by doing voice-overs for commercials and wrote his autobiography, Scrapbooks of My Mind. In 2000, he attended a Combat! reunion in Las Vegas with fellow cast members.[2]
Personal life
In his personal life, Jason enjoyed playing guitar, painting, sculpting, collecting wines, flying, hunting, photography, and breeding tropical fish.[5]
In 2000, Jason published his autobiography Scrapbooks of My Mind: A Hollywood Autobiography. The book describes Jason growing up in New York during the Great Depression and shares behind-the-scenes stories of his film and tv career.[6] The book was pulled from publication after his death in October 2000. An online version of the book exists on the web.
Death
Jason died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound one week after the Combat! reunion, on October 16, 2000, in Moorpark, California, where he lived. He left no note. Authorities said the actor was "despondent" over "unspecified personal matters."[2]
TV's longest-running World War II drama (1962–1967) was really a collection of complex 50-minute movies. Salted with battle sequences, they follow a squad's travails from D-Day on – a gritty ground-eye view of men trying to salvage their humanity and survive. Melodrama, comedy, and satire come into play as top-billed Lieutenant Hanley (Rick Jason) and Sergeant Saunders (Vic Morrow) lead their men toward Paris ...[7]
Producer Steve Rubin wrote a tribute to Jason published in the Los Angeles Times on October 20, 2000:
The baby boomer generation lost one of its heroes on Monday — Rick Jason is gone. He was better known as Lieutenant Hanley on the long-running 1960’s World War II series, "Combat!" As they often say in Hollywood war films, we lost us a good man. Jason was not only a wonderful human being, a devoted husband, and a fine actor, he was one of our best storytellers with links to the "Golden Age" of Hollywood.[8]
Rubin concluded:
For we boomers, Rick Jason helped illuminate the legacy of World War II to those of us too young to experience or remember it. He brought dignity to the image of the fighting man at a time when Vietnam was moving us in the other direction. Over those five years of episodes, he brought home every week the sense of fear, sacrifice and the great love soldiers have for each other. Jason and the squad were our touchstones to the dynamic era of the 1940s when America won the war.[9]
^Santoro, Gene (March–April 2011). "Infantrymen on the Small Screen". World War II. 25 (6). Leesburg, Virginia: Weider History Group: 69. Retrieved August 24, 2013.